'''Ikuto Yamashita INTERVIEW
The first Evangelion in eight years, designed to "look powerful"

'''A heavy-armored Eva?! Turning conflicting orders into a tangible concept'''
The PS2 game '''''Neon Genesis Evangelion 2''''' presents creators with possibilities for new story developments that weren't in the anime version, such as new equipment and weaponry for the Evas. What would Dr. Ritsuko Akagi do if charged with the task of making the Evas even more powerful than they already are? The answer is F-type equipment and two new weapons! In the spring of 2002, Ikuto Yamashita is asked to work out the designs for these concepts Specifically, the order was to "draw a heavy-armored Eva? for use in hand-to-hand combat." "By the time I was able to rally consider the order I'd already accepted, I realized that the concept of a "heavy-armored Eva" was going to be very problematic," confesses Yamashita. Eva and heavy armor actually interesting ideas. I mean, what armor the Evas did have was called 'restraints' - there was never any need to cover the [...] the Eva is at its strongest when it's bare. So I thought of an idea that wouldn't contradict [the nature of The Eva] - that idea was the A.T. Field Control Experiment."
The idea calls for an equipped system that would take the A.T. Fleld that an Eva emitted under normal circumstances and introduce a warping effect that would strengthen the Eva's defenses. In this way the requirement of heavy armor was met without violating the spirit of the Eva system. Next would come the actual design.
The Eva designed to be recognizable as an Eva even in silhouette, but if you were to stick on some armor it wouldn't look like an Eva anymore. We heve to keep the same distinctive pinched-in waist and slender shape of the Eva. 5o I thought it might be best if I just made it look like parts were added on here and there after the fact."
The new armor that emerged was [...] comparison to the more organic appearance of the Eva Unit 01.
"I drew the F-type according to the usual principles of robot design, as it does look powerful. But it probably doesn't have the same shock value that the Unit O1 had -how you felt (your image of robots been) almost betrayed when you first saw it"
For the latter half of his research. Yamashita took a controller and played the game himself. What did he think of it "I thought it was the kind of game that every player could use to supplement their personal concept of ''Eva'' if they're able to do all the things they can do [in the game], then even if the ending doesn't quite turn out like they expected, they'll still be able to accept it for what it is. In fact, it's entirely possible that Eva as we know it ends with this game. It's because players will be able to reconcile everything [...]

To solve the mysteries you must understand the world of Eva itself The Eva 2 game draws you into the world of Eva once again. During production, the developers did their best to understand everything about Eva, and tried to incorporate what they learned into the game. Without their efforts, it would've been impossible to re-create the world of Eva. Hiroshi Shibamura of Alfa System prepared a thick questionnaire and conducted an interview with Hideaki Anno, the director of both the TV series and the films, that lasted more than ten hours. The interview included questions such as, "What do you think about each of the Gundam series?" (to help program the "Anno AI" in the game) and "What was the first Angel?" (to further understand the story behind Eva). Director Anno and his staff answered the questions frankly, and the game reflects that.
However, it won't be easy to find answers. The quickest way to gather clues is to play the game repeatedly in as many different roles as possible. There are some deceptive characters, such as Gendou (you can never tell whether he's telling the truth). And after all of the hard work, much of the information obtained may turn out to be contradictory or just plain false. That is because a correct answer from the standpoint of one particular character isn't necessarily correct from the standpoint of another. On the other hand, mystery-solving is only a part of it. Instead of trying so hard to find the right answers, just keep playing around in the puzzling world of Eva to discover clues about the "Official Answer," which GAINAX is said to have presented in the game.

'''FROM EVA TO EVA 2'''
'''A PREEMMPTIVE STRIKE, SO TO SPEAK'''

The Renewal Project started with a full-page ad posted in the morning edition of the Asahi Shinbun newspaper on December 10, 2002, which must have surprised quite a few people since it's uncommon to see such a large-scale anime ad. The large Japanese text near the top (which means "Restart") must have escalated fans' curiosity. In fact, a number of people called King Records to ask about the ad. Tomohiro Ogawa, director of King Records, says, "I wanted to have something that made a strong impact at the beginning of the project. Initially, I thought about holding a press conference, but the newspapers reach a wider audience. If it's about anime, it's more common to post in anime magazines, but when it comes to a big title like Eva, I wanted many people besides anime fans to know that something big was underway. I also purposely kept the information to a bare minimum."

'''''A COINCIDENCE THAT ALMOST SEEMS PLANNED'''''

The Evangelion ''Renewal'' Project began in the summer of 2002 when a producer at GAINAX named Hiroki Sato commissioned Yoshiyuki Sadamoto to do illustrations which would form the backbone of the project. He wanted two illustration ideas-one based on the first episode that would appeal to first-time viewers and one that included both characters and mecha that could serve as a promotional poster for the TV series. Sadamoto accepted the challenge and drew the two rough sketches shown here. The idea for the one that shows Shinji holding Rei made such an impact when Sato first saw it that it was decided on immediately, not long after, the '''''Evangelion 2''''' game went into development. Bandai producer Yoshihiro Okamoto had initially planned on using the standard '''Evangelion''' illustration for the game disc jacket, but he fell in love with Sadamoto's second illustration at first sight, and decided to use it as the main illustration for the '''''Evangelion 2''''' project. It's almost too much of a coincidence that the cover art for both the DVD and the game were drawn at the same time!

'''THE STRATEGY BEHIND'''

The DVD box doesn't have illustrated sleeves, but the individually sold DVDs are decorated with illustrations targeting new fans and feature new illustrations by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto. Each illustration is inspired by a memorable scene featuring the main characters from each volume. Unfortunately, the cover illustrations had to be cropped from Mr. Sadamoto's original drawings to fit the box size. Mr. Sadamoto had to face tough deadlines to meet the release schedule of two volumes per month. Tomohiro Ogawa of King Records says, "It was almost a miracle that we were able to release all of them on schedule."

'''''TRULY IMPRESSIVE'''''

From planning to completion, Eva 2 was more than five years in the making. If you were to make a printout of the entire game script, it would fill several dozen cardboard boxes. The whole thing has been checked through several times to make sure the characters all sound natural. The care and effort expended on the voice quality is incredible. The acting script-which approaches 35,000 words !- was created so that the sound came through in full voice. That way, players would be able to completely immerse themselves in the game. The new voice actors were called in separately for a series of recording sessions that took well over half a month of gruelling 12 hour days, seven days a week!

'''''EVA AROUND THE WORLD'''''

Considering the huge impact Eva made on popular culture in Japan, it would be interesting to see how it fared elsewhere. Newtype Japan asked the editors-in-chief of both Newtype Korea and Newtype USA about the status of Evangelion in their respective countries, and here are their responses.
Let's start with Korea. Anime fans in that country were discussing the show over the Internet even as it was still being broadcast in Japan. Neither the TV series nor the movies had been released in Korea at that time, and the videos that were released for sale were heavily cut in order to make the content appeal to audiences of all ages. An unedited version of the show wouldn't come out until 2001. Because of this state of affairs, the huge boom that accompanied Eva broadcasts in Japan wasn't repeated in Korea. Despite that fact, reader polls in Newtype Korea still show Rei Ayanami at the top of their popular character rankings.
In the US on the other hand, Eva was released to video at a fairly early stage, and enjoyed almost fanatical popularity with fans. Newtype USA offers the following analysis: "its controversial nature, bold religious imagery and existential musings coupled with American interest in giant robots that break stuff are partial reasons for the show's success." Reactions to Evangelion's bizarre ending were similar in both the US and Japan, leading to a huge demand for the video release of the theatrical versions. At the moment, a live-action version of the story is being planned in the US, and needless to say, the project is riding on the wave of the show's popularity. It's clear that US fan interest in Eva has not waned, and sales of DVDs, action figures and related merchandise are still strong.
Thus we see that in Korea and the US, the process of the show's introduction and the way it was received were quite different. While neither country experienced a fan craze on the level of Japan, there is definitely something about Eva that transcends national boundaries.

'''Simple questions that any ordinary viewer would have about Evangelion are narrated. Five young voice actors were entrusted with the task of giving voice to these questions.'''

'''This is the acting script for Pen-Pen! The same types of phrases are repeated over and over, but depending on Pen-Pen's mood, the intonation will vary in subtle ways.'''

'''The acting script alone towers more than a foot high. All kinds of scenarios are included, from game events to character-specific scripts. In total, there are 26 folders-so many that they ran out of colors to code them with!''''

'''When the voice of Yuko Miyamura is added, the commercial is complete. She screams out in Asuka's voice: "So, what the hell WAS '''''Eva''''', anyway?!" It's really weird how naturally the whole commercial came together. "It felt both strange and new at the same time. I feel I was very lucky to have run into this role at the start of my career as a voice actress," says Miyamura.

'''A LITTLE CLASS REUNION'''

The '''''Refrain of Evangelion''''' CD that went on sale in Japan last July was a collection of the best and most famous songs from the vast quantity of music made for the TV series and movies. The series' director Hideaki Anno personally supervised the compilation. The illustrations focus on the theme of the relationships between characters and mecha in the show. Tomohiro Ogawa of King Records says, "For the Renewal, we wanted the mai nstaff from the series to come back and participate in '''''Eva''''' one more time, so we had them draw these illustration. I don't mind at all if the art looks different from [[the art used in]] the original show. It just means that if they were doing '''''Eva''''' now, this is how it would look. It felt just like a class reunion, and I'm very pleased with the variety we got in these illustrations."